One thing which really irks me in our office is when people email files to each other when the file they are emailing is available to all recipients on the local network. Instead, they should be emailing either a shortcut to a file or a network location (i.e. \\fileserver\filename.txt). The reasons for doing this are simple:
- Keeps email storage lower (remember a copy of the file is both in the sender’s sent box and the recipient’s inbox).
- Reduces the chances of multiple copies of the same file.
- Insures the most recent file is always being viewed.
- No need to worry about file size restrictions.
Of course, there really isn’t much you can do to prevent someone from emailing files when they should be sending links, but the more people who know to do it the right way, the better.
Jason Faulkner is the man who brings you our daily tips. He is based in Atlanta, Georgia.
Yes, good point I’m donating this to help Corporate Office NUCKLEHEADS! – This will create a new context menu item in Send To > . When you use it an email will be composed with a link in the body using your default email program.
Using this.. – just follow these steps
1. Highlight a file or group of files then 2. click Send To > Mail Recipient (as shortcut). This will open a new email msg and past the links into the body of the email.
Installing this – just follow these steps
1. copy everything below this line 2. open notepad 3. paste into notepad 4. save the file as sendtomailshortcut.vbs 5. double click the .vbs file you just saved.
‘…………………………………………………..START COPYING HERE ……………………………………….
‘– Name: SendToMailShortcuts.vbs
‘– Author: Maximiliano Taverna
‘– Version 1
‘ADD SENDTO PATH MENU
‘———————————————————-
Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject(”WScript.Shell”)
Set objFSO = CreateObject(”Scripting.FileSystemObject”)
strSendTo = WshShell.SpecialFolders(”SendTo”) & “\”
strShortcutFileName = strSendTo & “\” & “Mail Recipient (as Shortcut)” & “.lnk”
‘COPY ALL SELECTED FILES
‘———————————————————-
Set objArgs = WScript.Arguments
If WScript.Arguments.Count > 0 Then
For I = 0 to objArgs.Count – 1
‘CONVERT SPACES IN FILENAMES INTO PATHS AND ADD LINE RETURN
‘———————————————————-
strPS = Replace(WScript.Arguments.Item(I),” “, “%25″& “20″ )
strLinks = strLinks & “file://” & strPS & “%0A”
Next
‘CONFIGURATION FOR RECIPIENT EMAIL AND SUBJECT
‘———————————————————-
strRecipientEMail = “”
strMailSubject = “”
strMailSubject = Replace(strMailSubject,” “,”%20″)
On Error Resume Next
‘CREATE A NEW EMAIL MSG
‘———————————————————-
WshShell.run “mailto:” & strRecipientEMail & “?Subject=” & strMailSubject & “&body=” & strLinks
If Err 0 Then
Select Case Err.Number
Case 70
If MsgBox (”Stop! too many files selected. Do you want to create a file instead?”,vbYesNo) = vbYes Then
strLinks = Replace(strLinks,”%20″,” “)
strLinks = Replace(strLinks,”%0A”,vbCrLf)
txtFilePaths= WshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings(”%TEMP%”) & “\FilePaths.txt”
Set b = objFSO.CreateTextFile (txtFilePaths,true)
b.WriteLine strLinks
b.close
WshShell.run “notepad.exe ” & txtFilePaths
End If
Case Else
MsgBox “Error ” & Err.Number & ” occurred.”
End Select
End If
On Error Goto 0
Else
‘INSTALL
‘———————————————————-
RunInstall
Sub RunInstall
Set oShellLink = WshShell.CreateShortcut(strShortcutFileName)
oShellLink.TargetPath = WScript.ScriptFullName
oShellLink.IconLocation = “sendmail.dll,-2001″
oShellLink.Save
End Sub
End if